Top stories before the open Tuesday

Pre-Open Stocks action

By

EmilyChurch

Due to an editing error, this report contained an old analyst upgrade. It has been corrected.

U.S. stock futures were leaning toward the downside, as weakness in overseas bourses suggested the prior session's selling had not yet subsided, while better-than-expected results from Home Depot
HD, -0.13%
and Novell
NOVL
provided some hopes for a bounce.

Broker action

Chip design software maker Synopsys
SNPS, -0.71%
was expected to be a downside influence after warnings that fiscal second-quarter earnings would miss expectations. The company also said it would acquire Monolithic System Technology
MOSY, +30.22%
for $432 million in stock and cash.

Host Marriott
HMT, +7.14%
was also a likely loser after indicating that 2004 results would fall short of expectations, and may not pay a meaningful dividend.

The European Union's single market commissioner, Frits Bolkestein, has intervened in the antitrust suit the commission is filing against Microsoft
MSFT, +1.42%
to ensure that the decision is not too harsh, the Financial Times said. Bolkestein is concerned that Competition Commissioner Mario Monti might form remedies against Microsoft that infringe on the software giant's intellectual property rights by forcing it to share too much programming code with competitors.

U.S. weekly chain store sales fell in the latest week after two straight strong weekly gains, according to the ICSC-UBS weekly chain store index. The index fell 0.2 percent in the week ended Feb. 21.

Swiss specialty chemicals group Clariant said it planned to cut 4,000 jobs over the next two years as part of a restructuring effort and will propose a SFr920 million ($731 million) capital hike. Clariant swung to a 2003 net profit of SFr161 million after two years of losses, and cuts its debt from SFr3.7 billion in the first half to SFr2.9 billion at year-end.

Dutch telecom KPN
KPN, +1.78%
clarified that while it does not plan to make a hostile move to acquire U.K. mobile operator Mmo2
OOM
it would consider making such a move if a third party announced a firm move toward O2. KPN had hinted during the weekend -- but ruled out on Monday -- that it would make a hostile bid. It added that it reserves the right to make an a friendly O2 offer. On Friday, O2 turned down an offer from KPN allegedly worth 110p per share.

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